7:57 p.m. PDT Sept. 1, 2021
A mapping flight at 4 p.m. Wednesday showed that the Caldor Fire at that time had not spread as much as it had in previous days. However there were several hours of daylight left. The blaze has also been active during the night, even creating spot fires some distance from the main fire when you would hope that every self-respecting wildfire would go to sleep as the wind is supposed to slow down and the humidity should increase. But the historically low fuel moisture is the wild card. The 100-hour and 1,000-hour time-lag fuels have no significant diurnal variation.
To see all articles about the Caldor Fire on Wildfire Today, including the most recent, click HERE.
The fire is still about the same distance from the shore of Lake Tahoe, about 4 miles, and it is 3 miles from the Nevada state line. Firefighters expect the northeast side to keep moving toward north and east. The head, or the far northeast area, has spread uphill to above 9,000 feet, where the sub-alpine vegetation should act to slow the movement, but the frequent spotting keeps it moving.
Near Kirkwood on the southeast side about 800 acres have burned south of Highway 88 west of the ski area. North and northwest of the ski area the fire continues to grow north of the highway even as it moves into locations with more granite than vegetation. One large finger of fire is a half mile north of Caples Lake.
The number of confirmed residences destroyed by the fire has risen to 595 and 185 other structures. On Tuesday the numbers were 486 residences and 183 others. A map is available showing the locations that have been surveyed for structure damage.
The Red Flag Warning ends Wednesday at 11 p.m.
8:46 a.m. PDT, Sept. 1, 2021
These maps show the extent of the northeast side of the Caldor Fire during a mapping flight at 5:35 a.m. PDT September 1, 2021. It appears that the fire came very close to structures on Highway 89 south of Meyers.
The fire is about four miles from South Lake Tahoe.
We will post more information and additional maps later today.
6:41 p.m. PDT, August 31, 2021
Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for some areas within two counties across the state line in Nevada; click for the details for Alpine and Douglas Counties. We were unable to find a usable map but there is a half-assed one at the Douglas County link for that county only. The previous very good map for the rest of the fire is still available, but it does not include the sections in Nevada. Maybe the new areas will get added.
Below is an updated map, with data from 4:30 p.m. PDT August 31, showing the expansion east of Highway 89. At that time it had grown nearly six miles east of the highway.
1:46 p.m. PDT August 31, 2021
Here are three updated maps of the Caldor Fire from a fixed wing mapping flight at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. The fire continues to spread to the east and northeast. At that time it was 4.5 miles south of South Lake Tahoe and the shore of the lake. The large finger of fire east of Highway 89 grew at least 3.5 miles past the highway.
On the east side, the Caldor Fire has crossed Highway 88 in at least two places, 1.5 miles west of Kirkwood, and 1.6 miles west of Tragedy Spring. Some of the fire across the highway west of Tragedy Spring may be associated with a firing operation.
The #CaldorFire continues to grow, spotting in to subdivisions around Meyers and the Apache Ave. area, Tuesday. @NorthBayNews pic.twitter.com/lKzspqFWHW
— Kent Porter (@kentphotos) August 31, 2021
Fire crews are working extremely hard on the Caldor Fire. No structure losses reported pic.twitter.com/iw35MVFuTd
— CHP South Lake Tahoe (@CHPSouthLake) August 31, 2021
8:46 a.m. PDT August 31, 2021
Monday the Caldor Fire south of Lake Tahoe burned downhill to the east off the Echo Summit toward a populated area south of Meyers, jumped across Highway 89, and kept going up the slopes on the east side of the highway for another two miles, according to data from a 5:55 a.m. mapping flight Tuesday. The fire front was more than a mile wide when it entered the valley along Highway 89. At 5:55 a.m. it was about half a mile south of the Highway 89/50 junction.
Tuesday morning the fire had burned 191,000 acres. It was about 5 miles from South Lake Tahoe and the south shore of the lake.
The weather forecast is not good news for the residents or firefighters. A Red Flag Warning is in effect through 11 p.m. Tuesday for wind gusts on ridges up to 45 mph and low relative humidity on the east and northeast sides of the fire.
These weather conditions will allow the fire to become active early Tuesday morning and continue burning throughout the night. Fire Behavior analysts expect spotting distances will again be more than 0.75 miles.
The mandatory evacuation areas extend around Lake Tahoe from Tahoma on the west side, east to the Nevada border, including South Lake Tahoe. A detailed zoomable map showing the areas under evacuation orders is available.
We do not have a report on the effects on structures near Highway 89, but as of Monday evening 486 residences and 183 other structures had been confirmed as destroyed.
Resources assigned to the fire include 25 helicopters, 415 fire engines, 92 dozers, 74 water tenders, and 82 hand crews for a total of 3,904 personnel.
I appreciate your knowledgeable, no-nonsense reporting. I’m sorry to learn about this firefighter’s injuries and wish him a speedy and full recovery. I do think it’s a testament to the skillful management (and massive resources) of the firefighting teams that this one has seen relatively few injuries and, really, even property loss (thus far).
Could you please try to give the streets that have burned in south lake tahoe, it would help us cope with what is going on
Hey Thomas. This might help. It’s an ongoing survey of all structures within the Caldor Fire footprint. Caldor Fire Structure Status https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=366d1a3e25ce4a11a4c0846c3a337ce9&extent=-13464888.411%2C4646560.0626%2C-13348704.128%2C4707786.1223%2C102100
Re – organize the Wildland fire agencies in America. May not help with climate change but will eventually help the response and support needed for the firefighters. More air tankers, helicopters and actual fire fighters who work in a fire organization to support operations and logistics.
Better forest management. Blah. Blah. Blah. Mother Nature is accomplishing what, after 100+ years of wildfire prevention, mere mortals cannot. My guess is that most people view these devastating fires simply as destroyers of beautiful scenic views and landscapes. [Ah, but look at what humanity has done and continues to do to the Tahoe Basin.] Nothing is permanent on an evolving planet. What you are seeing is an evolution of our beautiful and scenic landscapes. Dixie’s and Caldor’s new landscapes won’t immediately be pleasant and soothing to most eyes. Realtors and tourism will take a huge hit. So what. There are certain realities people choosing to live within the WUI must accept. How many people aren’t conscious of their WUI? It is sad and tragic for them and their losses. Idyllic lives are indelibly altered. The sky will still be blue, the sun and moon will still rise and set, cloud shadows will still drift over the land, cold clean air will fill your lungs. These lands will regenerate, not as our generations have known them but if we permit them, they can remain wild and burn at their choosing. LR
It is not helpful to submit the same very lengthy message eight times. Please stop.
Hey Bill? My apology. It wasn’t intentional. Sometimes your site immediately takes a comment. Other times my comment just disappears with no indication that it is awaiting approval. So these eight identicals were submitted over an extended period of time with no evidence that it had been accepted. I tried 2 different browsers, closed and reloaded WFT several times to see if anything took. On occasion when this happens i.e. duplicate submission, a message will indicate that the message has already been submitted. For these eight dupes that never happened. So, it wasn’t me nor you but rather the frustrating indecipherable “black magic” world of computers. Sometimes I let a message disappear into the ether. This one I spent a lot of time on so I tried again and again and missed the birth of a rare severe thunderstorm to my east in the interim. Frustrating indeed! LR
Save the spotted Owl!!
This is something that needs to be said – man is responsible to the droughts in California, but not the way it’s being portrayed. Can anyone remember what happened the years following Mt St. Helens erupting? That area suffered a sever drought. Why? Well what brings the water/weather to an area? The jet stream. What happens when you super heat the atmosphere? The jet stream will be shifted north or south. What do we think is happening with the entire west coast burning year after year? Let’s get control of our forestry before the powers at be destroy it for years to come.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13595-019-0829-8#:~:text=The%20resulting%20rule%20of%20thumb,expressed%20in%20the%20same%20units.
Found this, about the relation between wind speed and rate of fire spread.
“Methods
We analysed data from a number of high-intensity wildfire observations (n = 118) documented in temperate shrublands, Australian dry eucalypt forests and North American conifer forests to examine the suitability and soundness of a relationship between wind speed and rate of fire spread. We also contrasted the performance of the best function against established fire spread rate models for the three fuel types.
Results
The resulting rule of thumb is that the forward rate of spread of wildfires burning in forests and shrublands in relatively dry conditions is approximately equal to 10% of the average 10-m open wind speed, where both values are expressed in the same units.”
from Annals of Forest Science, titled
“The 10% wind speed rule of thumb for estimating a wildfire’s forward rate of spread in forests and shrublands”, 2019.
what would happen if we changed all ( as much as possible ) of the heating and cooking over to wood fuel pellets salvaged from downed wood… like the Indians did… 200 years ago… could we not eliminate fossil fuels and the fire potential at one time… I know they make many heaters for wood pellets and There are alot of wood pellet grills out… plus this technology could be used to produce electricity … and cheaper than coal and with a lot of environmental good because this is surface harvested instead of coal… and eliminates fire hazards… Why is this so hard? …
yeah, what could be so hard about that? Just the expenditure of millions of gallons of gasoline, diesel, grease, etc to get the wood out of the forests (petroleum source). Plus most is consumed/damaged so a single log may not provide much wood. 1,000 hr fuels at 3%, they will likely be consumed. After manufacturing and packaging pellets, and wrapping in plastic (petroleum source), and transported. Oh, hell, what could be so hard about that? If nobody wants to do firefighting, how many will step forward for black dusty carbonated harvest on granite dust steep slopes? Sign me up! Cough, cough, hack, spit dust, ecchhh.
probably still a lot cheaper than just letting it burn down hundreds of homes and thousands of acres… why waste it if it is only going to be fuel for the next disaster? At a million dollars a day to fight it… if only that much…? I got to think we would win and be far more storable than wind or solar BS.
Wood pellets in aircraft engines; trucks and cars … converting every home and office building, etc., etc.
laugh all you want… it was called biogas and thousands on vehicles ran on it at the time… I am talking bigger scale than my Recteq though… what about electricity production with wood fuel waste?
There was a forest by-products biomass electricity generation plant at one time outside of Westwood (as in Dixie Fire). LR
Let us all see how cheap it gets for the States back East to rebuild… again, after hurricanes and floods.
Bty, my uncle has a house and a well on all solar that is working out great.
Human beings, having dominion over all (LOL) are so vain in their attitude towards everything else. What is a disaster if you remove people from the equation?! LR
The biggest problem in this state is that firefighting has become so political. Bottom line those who live in the forest should not be able to get homeowners insurance due to the fire danger. We spend so much time trying to save properties in which should be written off. While I understand the job of a firefighter is to extinguish the fire they also should not take undue risk. The La Brea fire was a prime example of political drive to save homes. The established safety zone was staged SCBA’s at certain homes and to seek refuge inside the home should the fire come through the neighborhood. When the fire came through the one way road became bottle necked with fire equipment trying to get out and in and multiple pieces of equipment were damaged and firefighters were injured. Look at the cost of the Soda fire in ID vs. Many smaller fires in CA the same year.
The fire has crowned. Almost impossible to stop when that happens. This is bad!
So sorry to hear this from you. Thoughts and prayers and best wishes to all effected including the brave firefighters. Wish I has 30 years younger, I’d jump in there to help.
We need better forest management. We can’t be swayed by people who talk about protecting a specific species of owls and let the whole forest overgrow out of control. Se now, we lose the Owls AND all other species of birds and animals to the fires because balance was not maintained. Methodical forest management is feasible and must be done. Finland, Norway and Sweden do it; why can’t we.
Finland, Norway and Sweden are in much higher latitudes, some beyond the tree line, and they are just now trying to repair the damage that over harvesting of timber causes to drainage and riverways. Plus, we are have more acreage.
The western forests have been abused since the 18th century via clear cuts. In the day I help with replanting efforts in some of the cut areas (public not private) but you feel like an ant in a sea of stumps.
If this drought persists “management” may not matter.
And “balance” will be maintained with methodical forest management? Human beings, having dominion over all (LOL) are so vain in their attitude towards everything else. What is a disaster if you remove people from the equation?! LR
And lets not forget clear cut logging makes fires worse (https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr208en/psw_gtr208en_525-534_stone.pdf ).
The fuels that need to be removed/managed are not profitable for logging companies to remove them. The Timber industry has had more affect on shaping land management over the last 150 years than the spotted owl lovers.
We will never log our way out of this. They simply can’t afford to remove the trees that actually need to go in way that is profitable.
Florida is about the only place in the US that gets right. https://www.npr.org/2021/08/31/1029821831/to-stop-extreme-wildfires-california-is-learning-from-florida
This fire is wicked. With the dry fuels and rugged terrain and the way the fire is running and that valley between monument peak and freel/jobs peaks; Gardnerville needs to prepare. IMO.
drop the political crap..its sad to see a place being devastated we all know and love. thoughts and prayers to all.hope we get a wetter la nina than last year.it could happen if the winter high preasure sets up farther west in the pacific allowing colder wetter backdoor fronts to drop down from the north.
Yes, lets pray for a good wet winter that paces itself so that we don’t end up with flooding like they have had in parts of Europe and in the sub continent of India. We need the water, just not all at one time. Also, thoughts and prayers to the folks having to deal with all of these fires right now.
Lots of respect to the firefighters who are dealing with the consequences of poor forest management over the past 40 years. Got to improve that situation. If the forests are managed properly, “climate change” will have minimal effect. We need to cut the ‘breaks’ so that firefighters have a fair chance.
The 600+ homes and structures you refer to are throughout the entire Caldor fire vicinity, not any specific area, correct?
Yes, with most of the loss in Grizzly Flat.
So sorry to hear about the devastation in Grizzly Flat. We need help from Mother Nature to slow down the winds. Rain would be ideal.